Category Archives: Children

Propaganda and sexism prove powerful contraceptives for Chinese women

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China’s push for more births fails to convince a generation of only-children

China’s government has been trying to manage a public U-turn on one of its biggest, longest running and most powerful policy and propaganda campaigns for several years now, urging a generation of only-children – born under its one-child policy – that they should have more babies themselves.

But the posters, public information campaigns and official exhortations appear to have had almost no discernible effect. Beijing on Friday reported its lowest birthrate since the founding of Communist China over seven decades ago.

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China’s birthrate falls to lowest level despite push for more babies

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Efforts by policymakers to bolster the population after decades of strict family planning seem to be failing

China’s birthrate has fallen to the lowest level since the Communist country was founded in 1949, in a sign that efforts to head off a demographic crisis have so far failed.

There were 14.6 million births in China in 2019, a drop of about 500,000 from the year before and the third year in a row that the number of births fallen, according to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics published on Friday. It was the lowest number in seven decades, with the exception of 1961, the last year of a famine that left tens of millions dead.

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Food for thought: the school lunch scheme linking London and Liberia

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By providing free school meals to some of the poorest children on Earth, a UK charity is also ensuring they get an education

It’s breakfast time in Domagbamatma (population: 63) in the depths of the Liberian rainforest, but there’s no food in evidence in the home of Massa Kamara. The eight-year-old has been up since dawn, collecting firewood, fetching water.

Now she’s ready for school in a crisp white shirt and navy-blue skirt in her family’s muddy, two-room shack.

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Severe childhood deprivation reduces brain size, study finds

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Brain scans of Romanian orphans adopted in UK show early neglect left its mark

Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.

The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.

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Female paedophile Angela Allen to be released next month

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Allen’s release will be subject to strict licence conditions and adherence to ‘exclusion zones’

A female paedophile who operated as part of a “sickening ring” of child abusers is set to be released next month, the Parole Board has confirmed.

Angela Allen was part of a ring including three other women, who were convinced by IT consultant Colin Blanchard to share photographs of themselves abusing children.

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The child refugees risking the Channel by boat – one year on

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Kent youth asylum seeker charity has seen a 50% rise in demand for its services since December 2018

Bridget Chapman, who swims regularly in the Channel, wasn’t surprised when desperate asylum seekers began travelling to the UK on small dinghy boats last year. On a clear day she can see France’s coastline from where she lives in Folkestone, Kent. “If you’re stuck in Calais and you can see the British coast quite clearly, it must be really tempting to think: I’ll just get a boat,” she said.

It has been a year since the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, declared the increasing number of migrants attempting to cross the Channel a “major incident”, but boat arrivals are still a regular occurrence. On Boxing Day this year, more than 60 migrants were picked up while attempting to cross in small boats.

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Our first Christmas as empty nesters

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The kids have left home, and we’re not really coping, so this seems like the perfect chance to lure them back

My husband and I don’t think we have the condition until, one day last month, hundreds of miles from home, we find ourselves outside our younger son’s university accommodation at 11.30 on a Sunday morning. I am clutching supplies in a little brown paper bag. Our son knows we’re in town, but isn’t expecting this rude awakening. It’s a surprise.

“Do you think we should have called first?” I say as we approach the entrance, the inappropriateness of what we’re doing dawning on me only now.

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Australian paedophiles pay as little as $15 for online abuse of children in Philippines

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Australian federal police say livestreaming of children performing sexual acts marks ‘alarming shift’


Australian paedophiles are paying as little as A$15 for children to perform sexual acts online while being filmed in the Philippines, according to the head of the Australian federal police team in Manila.

Senior officer Andrew Perkins told Guardian Australia there was an “alarming shift” from previously more common types of “sex tourism” to “convenient and low-risk” online abuse of children which can be customised to the specific requirements of customers.

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Polio outbreaks in Africa caused by mutation of strain in vaccine

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New cases of highly infectious disease that should be ‘consigned to the history books’ reported in Nigeria, the DRC, CAR and Angola

New cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine have been reported in four African countries and more children are now being paralysed by vaccine-derived viruses than those infected by viruses in the wild, according to global health numbers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners identified nine new cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Angola last week. Along with seven other African countries with outbreaks, cases have also been reported in Asia. In Afghanistan and Pakistan polio remains endemic, and in Pakistan officials have been accused of covering up vaccine-related cases.

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African countries a ‘new frontier for child sexual exploitation’, warns report

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Researchers draw link between weak regulation of travel industry and rising levels of sex tourism and online sexual crime

Weak laws regulating sexual exploitation in travel and tourism are turning the African continent into a “new frontier for child sexual exploitation”, according to a new report.

The study, by the African Child Policy Forum, sheds light on the continued rise of child sexual exploitation, including new forms such as “tourism marriages” and cybersex.

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Whistleblowers on school paedophile ring in Afghanistan arrested

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Human rights defenders alleged that teachers and social workers were involved in abuse of more than 500 boys

Two people have been detained by Afghanistan’s intelligence services after they exposed a paedophile ring operating in some of the country’s schools.

Human rights organisations and the former president Hamid Karzai have called for the immediate release of Mohammed Mussa and Ehsanullah Hamidi, both well-known human rights defenders from Logar province, who were picked up by the National Directorate of Security last week when they were on their way to meet with the EU ambassador in Kabul.

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More than 80% of adolescents not active enough, warns WHO

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Sedentary lifestyles focused on screens are jeopardising health, says World Health Organization

More than 80% of adolescents worldwide are not active enough, putting their health at risk by sitting focused on a screen rather than running about, say World Health Organization (WHO) researchers.

The proportion of insufficiently active girls in 27 countries rose to more than 90% in 2016, the latest year for which figures are available. There was a significant gender gap, with girls lagging behind boys in physical activity, in all but four countries – Afghanistan, Samoa, Tonga and Zambia.

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‘My job can be pretty depressing’: how Africa’s legal systems are tipped against girls

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Discrimination against girls is still entrenched in the laws of many African countries. Shocking examples are easy to find

I love my job, but it can be pretty depressing. I’ve spent the past year researching and writing the first-ever continental report of the routine, blatant discrimination suffered by African girls.

The fact that girls and women are treated as inferior citizens is hardly news, except that this report reveals the extent to which gender discrimination is frequently state-sanctioned – embedded into the laws, policies and practices of many African nations. We’re talking about legal, institutional discrimination with its roots in a deeply gendered and patriarchal society. We are also talking about the denial of respect for the dignity of the African girl.

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‘You ruined me’: New Zealand’s abuse survivors speak at landmark inquiry

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Survivors are given a voice at first public hearings of investigation into historical abuse of thousands of children in state and faith-based care

On the morning Annasophia Calman is due to testify in public about a childhood destroyed at the hands of her father and the state, she eats scrambled eggs on toast and paces back and forth in the hallway outside her hotel room.

“My daughter rang up and she goes, ‘Mum, I’m so proud of you. You’re finally going to do it. It’s going to be over for you,’ ” Calman says. “But I knew it wasn’t over until I actually did it.”

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German parliament approves compulsory measles vaccinations

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Bundestag backs law that will fine parents up to €2,500 if children are not inoculated

Germany’s parliament has voted to make measles vaccinations compulsory for children, in response to a global rise in cases of the disease.

Parents who refuse to get their children inoculated face fines of up to €2,500 (£2,140) and a likely ban from nursery or school.

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Refugee age rows having ‘devastating’ impact on children

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UNHCR says children arriving in UK whose age is disputed likely to be denied services

Age disputes are having a “devastating impact” on unaccompanied and separated refugee or asylum seeker children arriving in the UK, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned.

Evidence from an assessment conducted by the UNHCR found disputes over a refugee or asylum seeker’s age impeded and delayed access to services and environments that can assist integration.

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‘Failing’ food system leaves millions of children malnourished or overweight

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Unicef report finds poorest children at greatest risk, while price of healthy food in rich nations drives food poverty

At least one in three children under five are either undernourished or overweight, and one in two lack essential vitamins and nutrients, the UN children’s agency has warned.

The Unicef report laid bare the alarming rate at which poor diets and a “failing” food system are damaging children, saying that “millions are eating too little of what they need and millions are eating too much of what they don’t need: poor diets are now the main risk factor for the global burden of disease”.

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In Iraq, religious ‘pleasure marriages’ are a front for child prostitution

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BBC investigation exposes Shia clerics in Baghdad advising men on how to abuse girls

I’m walking through the security cordon that leads into Kadhimiyah, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites. I’m in a queue, along with dozens of pilgrims who have come from all over the world to pay their respects to the shrine of Imam Kadhim. At the gate, a female security guard pats me down and looks into my handbag, a reminder that the story I’m reporting on here isn’t going to be easy.

As I walk around the market stalls surrounding the shrine, I notice the many “marriage offices” dotted around the mosque, which are licensed to perform Sharia marriages. I’d received tips that some clerics here were performing short-term mutaa [pleasure] marriages, a practice – illegal under Iraqi law – whereby a men can pay for a temporary wife, with the officiating cleric receiving a cut.

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Caesarean babies have different gut bacteria, microbiome study finds

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C-section babies pick up more hospital bacteria than those born vaginally, research shows

Babies born by caesarean section have different gut bacteria to those delivered vaginally, the most comprehensive study to date on the baby microbiome has found.

The study showed that babies born vaginally pick up most of their initial dose of bacteria from their mother, while C-section babies have more bugs linked to hospital environments, including strains that demonstrate antimicrobial resistance. The findings could explain the higher prevalence of asthma, allergies and other immune conditions in babies born by caesarean.

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‘Put your phone away and be in the moment’: how to enjoy being a parent

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A recent report found parents are happier when their children leave home – but why wait? Four experts share their tips on putting the fun back into family, at every age

Could we go down in history as the generation that forgot to enjoy our kids? It’s a shocking indictment, but the evidence is mounting: recent research found that parents become happier when their children have left home, while another study earlier this year found that working mothers with two children are 40% more stressed than anyone else. Meanwhile, Australian academics report that the pressures on parents mount after a second child, and that there are accompanying deteriorations in parents’ mental health.

And, as a two-year-old could probably tell you, stressed-out, unhappy parents raise stressed-out, unhappy offspring. The UK’s annual Good Childhood report, out last month, found there are more unhappy youngsters now than at any point in the past decade.

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